American Tropical

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I 'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you can see it. It's real serious. I don't know what to do. Los Angeles, 1932, in the headlines. The baby son of Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped. Al Capone enters a plant of prison.

Japan invades China. Albert Einstein visits Caltech. Other news does not make the headlines. The series of agricultural labor strikes sweeps California. The Confederation de Uniones of Redas begins the strikes. Later it will be strikes by the Trade Union Unity League, and later still by the Canary and Agricultural Workers Union. The growers band together with law enforcement agencies to put down these subversive strikes. Finally, the strikes are broken with tear gas, mass arrests, and vigilante committees. It is the beginning. In Ardmore, Oklahoma, a cousin of Mexico's president, or Steve Ruby, the

companion, are shot and killed by a deputy sheriff. The governor of Oklahoma offers a scholarship to honor the slain Mexicans. It is rejected by the Mexican government. The deputy sheriff is not held. The deaths are considered a tragic mistake. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates that the Aussie says this of Diembre with a parade. But the parade this year will be smaller. Already thousands of Mexicans and American citizens of Mexican descent have been deported on trains chartered by a Los Angeles County welfare organization. Between 1930 and 1940, over 200 ,000 Mexicans and American citizens will be repatriated. In

1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. In 1932, East Los Angeles celebrates the New York Times. Cikados receives his first artistic training at the Academy of San Carlos in 1911. As a leader in the student strikes, he begins his career as a political activist and artist. The Mexican Revolution.

Cikados rises to the rank of Capitán Segundo as a Carrancista. After the revolution, Cikados is sent to Europe as a military attaché. He studies art. Returning home in 1922, Cikados embarks on his first series of murals at the Preparatoria Nacional. The Angel. Barrio of a worker.

In 1927, Cikados leads a delegation of Mexican minors to an international congress in Moscow. In 1929, he paints the proletariat mother. In 1932, Cikados is invited to Los Angeles to paint a party in the city of Los Angeles. The mural at the Shnard School of Art. Working with a group of Southland artists, the Fresco blockpaders, Cikados undertakes a 25 -foot fresco which he calls street meeting. My name is Miller Cheats, and I had the pleasure meeting David Alfredo -Sacaros in the early summer of 1932. I met him at a series of parties and being a young

artist wanting to know more about new techniques, I persuaded him to teach some eight of his fresco painting. I was teaching at Shnard at the time, and Mr. Shnard graciously gave us the building in which to conduct the class. And we had a very exciting experimental period of a couple of weeks where he showed us many different techniques. I was doing this period that he conceived of the idea of doing the mural at Shnard on one of the walls in the main court. In his own words, the owner of the art school, Mrs. Shnard, wanted me to paint just anything, anything simple. She had her groomers at our Mexican painting was a purely nationalistic style of painting, possibly a folk art and nothing more. But it occurred to me to paint on that outdoor mural, a work entitled Street Meeting, and it occurred to me to paint in that meeting blacks and whites together,

and blacks and whites together no less than in Los Angeles, California. The result was that all the racist Americans were tremendously upset by the mural. What right does this pernicious foreigner have coming to our land and provoking a racial problem that's bad enough as it is? The newspapers were relentless in their attack until they forced the poor lady to build a wall tall enough to block the view of my work from the outside. Later they were able to destroy the mural completely. Next step, K. Forens, the director of the Plaza Arts Center in Orveda Street, commissioned cicados to paint another mural. This one is to be painted by a group of 20 students under the direction of cicados. Cicados said, the owner of a gallery, the Plaza Arts Center, wanted to have the same kind of publicity. A typical bourgeois

Yankee, he called me aside and said, I want you to paint me an outdoor mural 30 meters long and 12 meters high. As you know he went on, my gallery is in the Mexican section of Los Angeles, a city of more than 500 ,000 Mexicans. The opportunity was magnificent. The owner went on, the work may begin when and if you accept the theme that I give you, and that is the theme of tropical America. Without any hesitation I asked for the wording of the contract in sign. He usually showed up around 9 o 'clock in the morning and then we painted till about 10, 12, I mean till noon and then you have to know. And all together it was still going at first. The first half of it we painted on perhaps

a week and then Mr. Cicados dug in and really made the other half much faster than the first half. The owner like a good Yankee capitalist has spent the whole night thinking of the theme. As one might imagine for him, tropical America meant a continent of happy men, surrounded by palm trees and squawking parrots, where fruits fell voluntarily from trees to the mouths of the happy mortals. But instead I painted a man crucified, a man crucified on a double cross and poised proudly over it was the eagle of the United States currency. My mural was the mural of a

Mexican painter who had fought in the revolution. Who knew that his first duty before his aesthetic concerns was to fulfill the expression of his ideology. Now it's true that Mr. Ference thought that America tropical was a part of the world inhabited by happy men and that they passed the time rocking in their hammocks. But for me, America tropical was a land of natives, of Indians, of creoles, negros, of black men, persecuted and harassed by the respective governments.

And in all of these countries they were struggling for the same cause. There was great controversy. Some people really liked it thoroughly and every possible way. Others were very much against it, feeling it had something to do with political controversy or propaganda. And I think in most instances in powerful art you find this to be true. I think that very often some of the most potent things that have been done in the history of art over a period of time or all time has produced controversy. I'm sure that Mr. Cicarros had a very clear picture of what he had in mind when he painted the mural and I think he expressed it very well. I don't think he fumbled the ball. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. Shortly after the completion of America tropical

the United States government refuses to renew Cicarros 6 month visa. In November of 1932 Cicarros leaves for Argentina. In the wake of his departure public pressure demands that the controversial mural be destroyed. F .K. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural visible from the street be whitewashed. Two years later the entire mural is covered. Without a doubt my work was destroyed because of its theme for the content that I had put into it undoubtedly there was no other reason. As I have seen newspaper clippings

from Los Angeles and other parts of the United States that show the violent campaign against the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference himself as I said before he considered himself betrayed by the theme I had undertaken. And that is why the mural was attacked. F .K.

Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference. F .K. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme. F .K. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of

the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Fer the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the Plaza Arts Center orders that all portions of the mural be destroyed by the theme and this starting with Mr. Ference the director of the as deren murk Sure, yeah, I'll still feel about having murk truly true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true true of having his only major public mural in the United States restored. The Paro de Los Angeles Commission, which, as you know, would have the final

say in any reconstruction of not only of this building, but any other building, has shown considerable interest in the preservation of this mural. They want it preserved. And, of course, there are certain things that we've had to be worked out with them. For instance, how to get people out there so they could view these paintings and so forth. And the main concern, as yours, is what to do right now to preserve it so that the weather or the elements won't damage it anymore. We have, as you know, talked to quite a few people and there are different opinions. And I think we should get someone from Mexico, possibly, that has done this kind of work before and understands the problems involved. And especially, taking into consideration the fact that it's still outside and it has to be preserved from the elements of for future years. For two years, almost two years, I had tried to get some kind of financing for their trip here. They were willing to come, the two restores were

willing to come without any kind of pay or remuneration for their expenses and for plain fare. And finally, to make this documentary, I was able to have Jaime Mejia and Josefina Casada come to Los Angeles and they have now informed us that the mural is restorable. The mural, rather than being restored, can be preserved. The reason for this is that if we restore

the mural, we would have to practically reconstruct the entire work of the artist. And this is not what it is about reconstructing the work of the artist. Our intention is to preserve what has already been done by the artist. We have encountered the following problems in this mural. Firstly, the mural has suffered a mixture of colors between the white wash and the colors put on by the artist. That is the original colors of the mural. Another difficulty we have found is that the characteristics of the mural are not the characteristics of the traditional mural painting. The traditional fresco form is his father. We first have the wall of the mural. Over this wall are put two coats of

surfaces and over these two coats of surfacing is applied a third coat, which is the one that will support the colors. In this case, however, Maestro Siqueiros did not do this since he was experimenting with a new technique. His new technique was his father. He would put on the wall of the mural just one coat of surfacing over a black cement base. On this coat of cement, he would paint directly so that the colors fixed immediately on the surface. This made this mural to the time pass. This caused the mural over the passage of time to develop cracks which we can see here in circular form. These cracks have been caused by the separation of the mural surface from the wall

after being constantly soaked by the rain and then drying rapidly under the sun. In this case, we can see the separation because if we knock on the wall, we can hear the hollow sound of the separation of the mural from the wall. Another problem with the mural is the color. The color has been almost completely lost. We can see very clearly how the color has been washed by the rain. Now we would have no other way of restoring the color without using what is there as a guy. Because of this, we could not lift off the mural surface because we would then not have a coat of color to serve as a guide for restoration.

Now in an extreme case where the mural might have to be removed or if there were people interested in taking the mural from here and placing it in a museum or some place where it might be better preserved, we would have to remove the entire wall from the building, then place a new wall in its place and then remove the mural from the back side of the wall and not to side with the painting. I suggest that if there is no extreme urgency in removing the mural that it would be preserved in the following way. First, we would clean off all the white wash from the mural, what is left of the white wash with which it was covered. Next, we would clean off the tar that is covering

the lower portion. We would then restore color to the blank areas to match those areas that do have color. We would then cover the mural with a plastic coating, transparent, as transparent as possible, so that the original work of cicados may be seen. Lastly, we would cover the top portion with a kind of roofing with an awning so that the rain will not hit the mural directly so the mural can be protected at the top. Well, of course, the biggest thing we'll have to be done is the question of raising funds and we will certainly need the efforts of the community of Los Angeles, both the Chicano community, the Art Conscious community, all people who feel this is an important and major work of art that should and must be saved

in any way possible. I, of course, would direct all of my efforts toward that end. I think it's very important that the mural be preserved for two basic reasons. The first is that this mural is a very fine mural of cicadas' early period, so for aesthetic reasons, it would be very important to save it as well as historical reasons. The second reason is the implications that this has for the Chicano community. It establishes a link between the community in Los Angeles and that of Mexico in the work of this one great Mexican muralist. Naturally, I support the struggle of the Mexicans of the Latin Americans in the United States. Since it's a major importance to our own struggle, I believe that since that time, when the Mexican first began to struggle in a

positive manner, the repressions against the activities of Mexicans and Latin Americans had already begun. It is important to remember this fact. I believe that we, the Mexicans of this side of the board, have an obligation to lend our most complete, our fullest support as much as we can to our compañeros who are struggling in the United States. I have always done this and I will continue to do it and I think that there is no Mexican intellectual who would not be ready to lend his most complete and fullest help in the struggle. Thank you

very much.